Tamamo No Mae
General: Tamamo No Mae is an ancient, chaotic evil, nine-tailed Kitsune Blood Magus from Momiji's homeland. She is known for inciting chaos and war wherever she goes. She often poses as a beautiful maiden to win the favor of a king and then subtly encourages him to become a brutal tyrant. Appearance: In her human form, she often resembles a pale skinned human woman of eastern lineage with incredible beauty and grace. She has long, raven black hair and wears a flowing, elegant red dress that clings around her feminine curves and leaves her long legs exposed. Her body language is both haughty and sexually provocative. When angered, however, she shows signs of her true form with her eyes growing hungry and predatory and her teeth turning into fangs. In her true form, she is a snow white fox with nine tails that seem permanently stained in blood. In a further transformation, after absorbing the life force of her elite cultists, Tamamo No Mae shifted into a larger hybrid form, stained in blood, and with scar-like tiger stripes across her muscled body. Her fur was like barbs. Her teeth were like sabertooth fangs. Her eyes glowed with hellish light. Personality: Tamamo No Mae pretends to be a docile servant and compassionate lover to most of her masters. However, in truth, she is a violent sadist who loves to humiliate and insult her victims before killing them painfully. At the same time, she is known for laughing and boasting of her power. When she first encountered the party, she was riding Klaus and using him as a meat shield while urging him to devour his own daughter - trying to stack the odds as much in her favor as possible and create a moral dilemma for the group. When she was defeated, she seemed to be having a mental breakdown from the humiliation. Still, she was wise enough to flee to fight another day when she could stack the odds more in her favor. In her next fight with the party in Niflheim, although she was caught off-guard she took them far more seriously and proved to be a formidable foe. After being captured she tried a number of sly tactics trying to bargain for her release, from appealing to pity to pitting Momiji and Vera against each other. She offered not to threaten the world again in their lifetimes and even promised to reveal critical information to their quest. She seemed confident that she could escape in time anyway but wanted to save herself the "effort." When she was brought back to Master Penumbra's temple and Master Sharuk revealed himself, killing the Grand Master and launching his coup, she laughed haughtily at the situation. Abilities: Tamamo No Mae has the shapeshifting and illusion abilities of most Kitsune and is also a powerful Blood Magus. She uses powerful evil magic and blood rituals to unnaturally extend her life. As a nine-tailed Kitsune, she has access to potent mind manipulation powers. She was responsible for the creation of Vornir. When first encountered, she used lesser globe of invulnerability and controlled Klaus with a silver orb of Dragonkind. When defeated the first time, she used a hand-fan to seemingly slice open a portal in the dimensions and retreat through it. Momiji remembered hearing of items that were one-way portals keyed to a specific location. During their second encounter, they recognized the portal as an illusion. The fan actually allowed her to wind walk. In the party's second fight against her she used mirror image and displacement. She also absorbed the life force of her elite cultists to revive herself and transform into a far more dangerous form. She showcased the ability to store potions in her blood, drinking it to heal herself. She could touch a foe and cause their blood to violently expel from their body. She also had "scrolls" etched into her skin. She can also turn her body into a torrent of blood and seep into a foe to possess them. However, Adam was able to expel her from an ally with protection from evil. After making a pact with Lucifer in exchange for her soul if she dies, she cannot be detected by the divine senses of other deities. If she dies, her brother will now be damned as well. Weaknesses: Tamamo No Mae is quick to try to retreat when things start to not go her way. However, if backed into a corner, she can prove to be a ferocious fighter. She shares a soul and life force with the Kitsune Emperor, her twin, and if he dies she dies as well. Goals: Tamamo No Mae served Vanargand as his advisor and assisted in the creation of Vornir. During her initial encounter with the party, she mentioned that her "schemes were set too far into motion" to allow them to interfere." Her intention was to create an artificial divine spark in Vorir and use whatever latent deity she created's power to sever the link between her and her brother. The party eventually learned that she and her followers attacked a temple in Hanashima that guarded a gateway to the lower planes. She made a pact with Lucifer where in exchange for her soul upon her death she could not be detected by the divine senses of deities less powerful than him while alive. This has allowed her to travel to Niflheim without Hel knowing. There, she hoped to somehow harvest the spiritual essence of the world serpent to further her schemes. However, she was stopped by the party and Vornir who battled her. During the fight, she revealed her link to the emperor to try to demoralize Momiji. After her capture, said her ultimate goal was that she intended to conquer Hanashima and then the world. There was a small portion of the Abyss which had manifested on the material plane in Hanashima and was sealed away by the emperor. If she unleashed it, she said she could control the most powerful army in the world and crush all others beneath her. She despised her brother’s peaceful isolationism and said that Hanashima was barely a footnote in the pages of history as a result. She has now been captured in Hanashima and is likely plotting to escape and once more wreak havoc on the world. History: Before the game: She and the emperor of Hanashima were born twins - born just before the literal dawn of a new century. She was born in darkness in the last moments of a bloody age while he was born in the dawn of a new age of enlightenment. As a freak occurrence, they both share the same soul and life force. They are the Yin and Yang, with she as the evil side and he as the good.The emperor has tried to be as benevolent as possible hoping it would eventually affect her while she has tried to be as wicked as possible hoping to corrupt him. Tamamo No Mae was known to be a force of chaos in her homeland of Hanashima, causing many wars and influencing the rise of many cruel and brutal warlords. However, she eventually fled to the mainland. Ever since, Kitsune have been organizing search parties to try and capture her only for her to slay or elude them. For some reason, their orders are to take her alive. Her link to the Emperor was unknown and the Emperor had reigned for so long because he benefited from her unnatural magics extending their shared life force. Tamamo No Mae first sought to work with Loki's Reincarnation, hoping to use him to sever the link between her and her brother. They sought out a staff that could grant wishes once a year but Loki's Reincarnation betrayed her and stole it for himself. Tamamo No Mae then approached Vanargand along with a priestess of Loki, offering to serve him and help him create a son. The priestess, Tamamo No Mae's apprentice, died in childbirth but successfully delivered Vornir into the world. Tamamo No Mae then remained on as Vanargand's adviser, keeping an eye on Vornir as he grew. She helped Vanargand to consolidate his power while letting him take all the credit. She had hoped to create an artificial divine spark in Vornir and use him to sever the link between her and her bother. To help strengthen Vornir, Tamamo No Mae offered dark power to the Githzerai monk Lord Sharuk. One of Master Penumbra's greatest students, he sought a way to surpass his master. In exchange, he would train Vornir. Tamamo No Mae was pleased to see Vornir surpass his teacher and the monk fled in disgrace after nearly being killed by the youth. Tamamo No Mae then told Vornir that he could rule the world and plunge it into another ice age if he could re-assemble the staff of Loki and gave him abyssal parasites with which to enslave adventurers to do his bidding. First encounter with the party: Momiji eventually discovered Tamamo No Mae in Vanargand's Kingdom. She had used an orb of Dragonkind which she acquired at an unknown time to enslave Klaus and help Vanargand capture his daughter Vera to use as an enforcer. When Tamamo No Mae learned that a fox man had helped Vera escape, she took it upon herself to hunt the interlopers down. She believed that they were all kitsune come to capture her. Thus, she attacked the party riding Klaus into battle. Her strategy seemed to be flawless. With a globe of invulnerability she would be safe from most magic. With the orb healing her and other magical defenses, arrows were trivial. She would use Klaus to devour his own daughter and her friends and would use the dragon's body as cover. Vera's hesitation to hurt her dear father would be their undoing. What she hadn't counted on was that the party had found an artifact staff and infused it with the Tear of Amun Ra. This allowed them to summon beams of flame that tore through Klaus' wings without actually killing him. She plummeted to the ground and was thrown from the dragon. Her orb was taken via mage hand by Marion and the rest of the party surrounded her and beat on her. Shocked, bloodied, and humiliated, she retreated using her fan - vowing revenge. The Battle of Mournwood Forest: After Vanargand's defeat, the party learned that the cult of mages that seemed to follow Vornir were handpicked by Tamamo No Mae from among his slaves. They were indoctrinated into a cult from childhood and given children that were too weak and deformed to sacrifice in their evil rituals. During battle, these cultists used strange magic not seen commonly on the mainland and when injured they had no reaction to pain. They also seemed to have gained some of the form shifting abilities of the kitsune, becoming half-tiger like creatures as a result of Tamamo No Mae's blood magic tampering. After the death of Vornir, these cultists fled, presumably to report to their mistress. Second Encounter: Tamamo No Mae's forces then attacked a temple in Hanashima which guarded a gate to the lower planes. She made a pact with Lucifer to make her undetectable with divine senses and then traveled to Niflheim to harvest the essence of the world serpent. But, she was surprised to find her "failed experiment" Vornir offering Vera up to her as a sacrifice in order to rejoin her. She moved in to harvest Vera's blood only for the party to ambush her. She fought Vornir and Vera, trying to stay alive with defensive magics while her cultists battled the rest of the party. The cultists proved to be formidable foes, but the group was slowly gaining the upper hand. Meanwhile, Tamamo No Mae fled the cave and crashed into the hidden feet of Momiji. Momiji then delivered a sneak attack that rendered their foe unconscious. Their trap appeared to have been successful, but then the cultists collapsed to the ground as their blood and life force was torn from their bodies to swirl around Tamamo No Mae as she transformed and vowed not to lose again. Prior to the battle with Tamamo No Mae beginning, she revealed the nature of her relationship with the emperor to Momiji to demoralize him and ensure that the party wouldn't kill her. The battle with Tamamo No Mae was fierce. She used quickened spells each round. In the first, she protected herself with displacement and lesser globe of invulnerability. She used her spell shield class feature to reduce damage dealt to her and apparently had several healing potions contained in her blood that she could simply drink as a move action. The Kitsune witch attempted many times to mentally dominate Vera but after being unsuccessful struck her and caused much of her blood to be violently purged from her body. After several rounds of combat, with most of the party close to dead, Tamamo No Mae was severely injured by enough hits from Vornir and the party slipping past her defenses. She then transformed herself into a torrent of blood and seeped inside of Hanhur’s body, intending to use his flesh as a shield while she recovered and continued to assault them. However, Adam was able to tap into some of his latent power as the reincarnated God of Light and purge Tamamo No Mae with a protection from evil spell. Hanhur was able to land a few lucky hits with Moradin’s hammer which was especially effective against chaotic evil beings. The blood witch then once more attempted to flee using her magic fan. However, this time, the party saw through her major image of her “jumping through a portal”. In actuality, that was a distraction as she cast the wind walk spell, taking an incorporeal form and moving with the speed of wind. However, thanks to his fists being considered magical, Vornir was able to leap up and knock her out before she could escape. Interrogated by the Party':' The group was then left with what to do with her. Tamamo No Mae seemed to have numerous tricks at her disposal. Eventually, despite Momiji’s protests, Ren decided to surgically remove her tails. He found that her blood automatically clotted causing her to stabilize. She was then blindfolded and gagged and her hands were bound in manacles before her gear was removed and she was swaddled in polar bear hide. Finally, she was hog-tied to a pole. The group then made their way back to Hel’s palace. Tamamo No Mae woke up mid-way through their journey and seemed to laugh mockingly as Vornir spoke with the party about how she had manipulated him. But, she was rendered unconscious again. Once back, the group then removed Tamamo No Mae’s gag but left her bound and blindfolded to which she initially tried to use her beauty to sway them, crying and seeming pitiable - it had no effect. Upon being told that her tails had been removed, her tone changed and she sneered and said she had “come back from worse.” Tamamo No Mae was then questioned and she revealed her goals and how she knew Loki's Reincarnation. Tamamo No Mae then attempted to bargain for the group to release her. The group seemed offended by the audacity of that request and she was beaten by Vornir and Vera. Tamamo No Mae said that pain was nothing to her and that since they weren’t going to kill her it was a pointless threat. Vera then began to choke her, at which point she begged Momiji not to let her kill the emperor. Vera and Momiji almost came to blows with each other until Ren shouted out a warning that Tamamo No Mae was playing them against each other. She earned an elbow smashing her nose from Vornir for her efforts. She then laughed and said that she had information that was critical to the group’s quest. They would be doomed if they didn’t receive it and their deaths would not be glorious. This betrayal would come suddenly from someone close to them. The group was not buying it and asked how they could possibly allow her to go. She offered to let them drop her off on the Ethereal plane if they wished even. She said that she would not return to cause chaos within their lifetime. She said they wouldn’t even be blamed as she had eluded capture before. She also said that, even if she was taken, she would eventually escape again. It would just be an “inconvenience” that she would rather avoid. The group still wasn’t having any of it. Adam asked how they could possibly allow her to menace their children, to which she said that they must have very little confidence in their progeny. She was re-gagged, but she then fell to the ground and used the blood running from her face to write the word “Gith.” This was not enough to convince the group though. They then asked for an audience with Hel to secure Vornir's resurrection as a ghost and their transport out of Niflheim. On the Astral Plane: Upon arriving at the Astral Plane, Vornir was shocked to see his old master, Master Shruk among the Gith. Her captors watched as Sharuk panicked and jump at Master Penumbra from behind, killing him with a sneak attack using the quivering palm technique. Some of the Gith students then began to battle each other. Sharuk revealed that he had been planning a coup for some time. He was Master Penumbra’s greatest student but had fallen just short of passing all the trials. He was insulted by the idea of some “foolish false Gods” from the material plane being trained to be greater than he was - saying that only Gith could be true martial masters. He then told Vornir that he was disgusted at himself when his student surpassed him. He returned to Master Penumbra and trained harder than ever before. Meanwhile, he developed his own style on the side (combining dishonorable tactics like sneak attacks). He revealed how he had trained Vornir at Tamamo No Mae's request. Tamamo No Mae, hearing all that was transpiring, laughed at the group for failing to hear her warning. Capture: Tamamo No Mae attempted to escape during the battle but was spotted by Ren's wolf which barked a warning. She was then once again rendered unconscious. The party was given their week to train before the tournament against Sharuk and his top students and Tamamo No Mae was delivered to the Emperor of Hanashima via Master Penumbra's scrying pool.